Blackstone’s $3.1 Billion Deal Gives Investors 49.9% Stake in LNG Canada-Linked Company
Key Facts
Funds managed by Blackstone Credit & Insurance, alongside Canadian investors, agreed to invest $3.1 billion to buy a 49.9% non-controlling stake in a Mitsubishi subsidiary, Blackstone said on November 2, 2026. The subsidiary holds Mitsubishi’s stake in LNG Canada’s liquefied natural gas business, so the deal does not target a publicly disclosed direct stake in the project. Mitsubishi said in its announcement that the transaction is worth about $1.6 billion and that it will sell the stake in its subsidiary. Control remains with Mitsubishi, which Blackstone said will remain the controlling partner in the company. The deal gives Mitsubishi funding for its business expansion while allowing it to retain all of its share of the LNG volumes it offtakes.
The investor group includes CPP Investments, through wholly owned subsidiaries of CPPIB Credit Investments, as well as the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, OMERS; the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario, IMCO; and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, PSP Investments, Blackstone said. The deal brings together a U.S. asset manager and four Canadian institutional investors in a transaction linked to gas export infrastructure. An official at CPP Investments described the LNG Canada project as "a high-quality, globally strategic asset with strong long-term fundamentals and attractive return potential for the CPP Fund." The deal comes as the project moves toward expansion of Phase 2, for which its partners approved a final investment decision on September 29, 2026, according to the Canadian government's Major Projects Office. The transaction places Canadian pension-fund capital in an investment structure linked to Mitsubishi’s stake in the project.
Mitsubishi’s holding company owns 15% of LNG Canada and currently offtakes 2.1 million tonnes of LNG a year in proportion to its stake, the company said on November 2. Mitsubishi expects its offtake volume to rise to 4.2 million tonnes a year after the project’s expansion. The company said the transaction will not affect its LNG offtake volumes or customers, and that it will continue to participate in Canada’s gas and LNG value chain. Blackstone also said Mitsubishi will retain all of its share of the offtake volumes. LNG supply and customer relationships therefore remain with Mitsubishi under the terms it announced, while the new investors participate in the subsidiary through a non-controlling stake.
Blackstone says the Phase 2 expansion will double LNG Canada’s production capacity to 28 million tonnes a year. The work includes, according to an Associated Press report on the partners’ decision, adding two LNG processing units, a storage tank and a loading berth. The Canadian government expects Phase 2 to attract $33 billion in private capital and provide about 6,000 direct construction jobs, as well as up to 240 operating jobs at the plant and on the Coastal GasLink pipeline. LNG Canada began exporting LNG in June 2025, becoming the first large Canadian LNG export facility to start operations, the company said. Natural gas is transported from western Canada to Kitimat, where it is liquefied and loaded onto tankers whose exports are mainly bound for Asian markets, according to the Associated Press.
In a separate Canadian economic development, economists surveyed by The Canadian Press expected annual inflation to reach 3.2% in October, up from 3.1% in September. The agency published the forecasts on November 13, before the October reading was released. That puts the upcoming inflation data among the Canadian indicators watched by markets, while the deal concerns an investment announced by the companies on November 2. The transaction centers on Mitsubishi’s stake in a subsidiary that holds an interest in LNG Canada, rather than a transfer of project management to the investor group. Mitsubishi also retains its controlling role, offtake volumes and customers, according to its announcement.